The present invention relates to a tire having a portion thereof such as a sidewall component that glows-in-the-dark due to the presence of a phosphorescent layer thereon. The present invention also relates to a tire having, and to a process for incorporating, a phosphorescent decal on the sidewall component.
Heretofore, tires for vehicles have had fluorescent or phosphorescent particles mixed or implanted within the rubber mixture of a tire in order to give bright reflective, or afterglow characteristics. Examples of such tires can be found in Great Britain Patent No. 2,265,586 to Hare and Japanese Patent Application No. HEI3-160039 by Fukomoto. Generally, a fluorescent substance has no afterglow because the light emitted from the fluorescent substance decays immediately after removal from the source of excitation.
A problem with the prior art incorporation of phosphorescent or fluorescent material into the rubber composition of a tire, is that the resulting product still shows minimal afterglow even though a high amount of phosphorescent/fluorescent pigment is used.
An object of the present invention is to provide a process for forming a tire having a glow-in-the-dark sidewall component, comprising the steps of compounding and mixing a non-black sidewall compound, applying a phosphorescent layer to at least a portion of the surface of the non-black sidewall component to form glow-in-the-dark phosphorescent sidewall component, applying said phosphorescent sidewall component on an uncured pneumatic tire, and curing (molding and crosslinking) said tire so that said tire has a phosphorescent sidewall portion.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a vulcanized pneumatic tire with a sidewall which has glow-in-the-dark properties due to the presence of phosphorescent pigment incorporated thereon.
A still further object of the present invention relates to a tire having a recessed area, or areas, in the sidewall portion thereof such as a ring or ring like structure around the sidewall portion of the tire. The recessed area contains a phosphorescent layer applied thereto by one of the methods of the present invention. The phosphorescent layer in the recessed area is protected from road or surface hazards such as curbs and other objects.
Another object of the present invention is to apply a cured glow-in-the-dark decal with an adhesive to a tire sidewall, which is then incorporated into a green tire and subsequently cured. A tire is thereby formed having glow-in-the-dark decals on the sidewall portion thereof.
A further object of the invention is to apply an uncured glow-in-the-dark decal to a sidewall which is incorporated into a green tire. The entire assembly is subsequently cured.
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to persons skilled in the art from the following detailed description.